Beer cooling and dispensing apparatus.



No. 808,582. PATENTED DEC. 26, 1905. T. D. SMITH.

BEER COOLING AND DISPBNSING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 25.1904.

WITNESSES ATTORNEY corresponding parts, the single figure of thev VUITED STATES PATENT IPFIQE.

BEER COOLING AND DlSPENSlNG APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 26,1905.

Application filed -uly 25, 1904. Serial No, 217.914.

T0 all whom, t nca/ 7,1 concern,.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS D. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Beer Cooling and Dispense ing Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to devices for dispensing beer at a bar or the like, and has for its more particular objects to improve the refrigeration of said beer g to retain the beer at a low temperature from the cask or other supply-package to the faucet from which it is drawn; to shorten and straighten the pipe between the cask and faucet, so that it can be more easily and perfectly cleaned to thus enable cool, clean, and palatable beer to be drawn from the faucets, and to obtain other advantages and results, some of which will be hereinafter referred to in connection with the description of the working parts.

The invention consists in the improved beer refrigerating and dispensing apparatus and in the arrangements and combinations of parts of the same, all substantially as will be hereinafter set forth, and finally embraced in the clauses of the claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, in which like numerals of reference indicate drawing illustrates in vertical section an apparatus for carrying out my invention and is thought to sufficiently illustrate the same.

In said drawing, 2 indicates a cold-storage chamber, preferably built in the basement or below the floor 3 of the bar-room. Said chamber 2 may be of any construction common in the art, although I prefer to form its walls as shown in the drawing, where 4 indicates layers of mineral wool or other nonconductive matter, and 5 air-spaces inside said mineral wool. Both said layers 4 and spaces 5 are inclosed in partitions of suitable material, preferably wood, lined with rosinpaper. A door 7 provides access to the interior of the chamber 2. Within said chamber 2 is built a rack 8, adapted to contain cakes of ice 9, which, however, do not occupy the entire chamber. Casks 10, containing beer or other liquid, are also placed in said coldstorage chamber 2, and the usual appliances for drawing off the liquid in said casks are supplied. I have shown these appliances as consisting of a pipe 11, leading from the lower part of each cask and having a stop-cock 12, while a compressed-air pipe also leads to an impervious connection with the tap-hole of the caskand at its other end opens into a main pipe 14, leading from a compressed-air cylinder 15. Said air cylinder 15 is supported in the storage-chamber 2 by straps 16 and supplied through the pipe 17, leading outside the chamber. The various pipes, it will be understood, may be supported in any suitable manner. Preferably the upper part of the storage chamber 2 is provided with Ventilating-openings 18, adapted to be closed by covers 19, so that any warm air in the top of the refrigerator may be permitted to esca e.

lfrom the storage-chamber 2 an insulating pipe-conduit 2O extends to any suitable point of the floor 3 and through the same the pipes 11 from the beer-casks are led directly to the bar. The walls of said pipe-conduit 2O may be of the same construction as those of the coldstorage chamber, or they may consist simply of alternate layers of wood and mineral wool, as shown, with a central space for the pipes 1 1. The said pipe-conduit 20 may, furthermore, be provided with traps or manholes 21 whereever desired to permit access to its interiorfor arranging the pipes therein. It will be also understood that similar traps may be located wherever necessary throughout my apparatus.

Coming now to the means by which the beer is to be served, 22` indicates any common construction of bar open from the back, as at 23, to receive the parts hereinafter described. Connecting with the insulating pipe-conduit 2O from the cold-storage chamber 2 and continuing upward to near the top of the bar is a tubular conduit 24, surrounded by an annular jacket 25. At its top the said annular jacket expands or is enlarged laterally to form an ice-box 26 directly beneath the top of the bar, and in carrying out my invention this ice-box is filled with pieces of ice, the melting water from which fills the jacket 25 of the conduit 24 for the beer-supply pipes. This jacket, which thus forms a downward extension of the ice-box, is in alinement with the said insulating pipe-cenduit leading from the cold-storage chamber IOO IIC

-For instance, it has been found that the and is of course closed at its bottom, which abuts against the said conduit 20. Furthermore, the pipe-conduit 24 within the jacket 25 extends above the bottom of the ice-box and opens into its upper part. The pipes. 11 thus lead from this conduit 24 outward into the ice-box 26 and terminate in faucets 29, arranged along the side of the icebox at the rear of the bar. Each pipe, it will be understood, leads to its own faucet, as is common, and beneath the faucets is a drip 30, discharging into a sink 31, from which a draw-in pipe 32 leads to the sewer. An overflow-pipe 33 also extends from the ice-box 26 to the sink 31, the top of said pipe 33 being so located as to maintain the level of water in the ice-box always above the faucets 29 and yet below the top 28 of the pipe-conduit 24. The ice-box is closed at its top byacover 34, surrounded by the usual gutter 35, into which drippings from the perforated top 36 of the bar may drain and be led to the sink 31.

By the apparatus thus described beer is not only maintained at a low temperature while in the cold-storage chamber 2, but, moreover, the said low temperature is maintained throughout the length of the pipes leading from the cask to the dispensing-faucets, so that the beer does not become warm while standing in said pipes. In fact, in my improved apparatus the upper portion of the supply-pipes 11, which are surrounded by melting ice, are at a lower temperature than the storage-chamber 2, so that increased refrigeration is secured in the supply-pipes 11.

chamber 2 averages about 44o, while the temperature of the ice-box 26 is 350 and the beer discharged is about 40o. The beer is thus served cold and at the same time the length of pipe through which it has passed is so short and free from bends as to be easily cleaned and kept free from accumulations of foreign matter. The beer is thus clean and wholesome as if directly drawn from the cask itself.

Obviously my invention can be employed with other liquids than beer, said beverage being named throughout this specification simply as a typical liquid.

It will be noted that the beer-supply pipes 11 are not attached or held in any way to the rest of the apparatus except by the couplings of their ends to the faucets 29 and to the casks 10. Between these two points the pipes 11 are loose or free and removable. They have no connection or attachment to any other part of the apparatus and can thus be taken out entirely without affecting or disturbing in any way the rest of the apparatus. This is of especial advantage, because the pipes have to be renewed or replaced at intervals, and it entails great loss and inconvenience to dismantle the whole apparatus, so that it is put temporarily out of service.

' Having thus described the invention,wha I claim as new is- In a beer refrigerating and dispensing apparatus, the combination of a cold-storage chamber adapted to contain ice and casks of beer, an insulating pipe-conduit extending outward from said chamber, a bar provided with an ice-box having an extension leading downward therefrom and closed at its bottom, said extension being adapted to iill with water from the melting ice in the icebox and being in alinement with the said insulating pipe conduit of the cold storage chamber, a pipeeconduit continuing the central passage of the insulating pipe-conduit throughsaid ice-box extension and extending above the bottom of the ice-box, and means for retaining the level of water in the ice-box below the top of said pipe-conduit.

2. In a beer refrigerating and dispensing apparatus, the combination of a cold-storage chamber adapted to contain packages of liquid, a bar provided with an ice-box having an extension leading downward therefrom and closed at its bottom, said extension being adapted to fill with water from the melting ice in the icebox, a pipe-conduit extending from the interior of the said cold-storage chamber through said ice-box extension to a point above the bottom of said ice-box, and

means for retaining the level of water in the ice-box below the top of said pipe-conduit.

In testimony thatI claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 6th day of July, 1904.

THOMAS D. SMITH. Witnesses:

RALPH LANCASTER, RUSSELL- M. EVERETT. 

